Of Gods and Demons: part one

"They tell stories of the end of the world. Armageddon, Ragnarok, the battle of Good and Evil. If they only knew...."

The sun faded beneath the horizon. The fires now consumed the world. The air smelled of ash, the haze of a ruined world filled the sky. Yet there they stood, alone among the carnage, the wreckage, the death and destruction stood seven figures. Exhausted they raised their swords to the sky and let out a roar that it would seem would crack the sky.

The yell of Dan filled his ears, "YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" Slowly he raised his head, the dream wiped from his mind. His consciousness was there but the part of him that controlled his body was still lost somewhere in the astral void of dreamland. His mornings had been like this for what seemed like an eternity.

He rolled out of bed hoping the sudden stop would bring his mind to a more alert state of being.  *THUMP* He hit the floor like a sack of potatoes, "Shit...." James thought bringing his arms up to lift him off the floor to which his face was so happily merged. Curious as to the sound of her son hitting the floor from a three foot drop, Jane came into the room, "Oh god!" she exclaimed "Are you alright?"

"Yeah Mom, just trying to wake up." slowly rising to his feet. The fresh cut on his forearm caught Jane's eye, "What happened? to your arm honey?" "It's nothing mom, I don't know how I got it." He said looking at his mattress under which held a secret cache of razors. "Did you clean it?" "Yes mom." "Are you sure?" "I know how to clean a cut mother."

Already late he took no particular hurry in getting dressed. By the time he finally left he was thirty minutes late for school. Today was going to be a bad day.

Mr. Poe's history class was first period, which was good he had finished the week's assignments the previous day and could just sleep. The class ignored James when he slipped through the door. Mr. Poe just nodded and let the it pass without incident. James looked around the room, placed his head onto his desk, and fell asleep.

Next was English, Mrs. Farmer, aka The Dragon. She had earned he nickname from an observation James had after reading Beowulf, her fake gaudy jewelry and vile temperament just fit the name."Has anyone read Romeo and Juliet before?" She asked the class. The class was hell, the over emphasis on Shakespeare was the worst. Sure the man did some good stuff, but he wasn't god. It was time she learned that.

James raised his hand, "I have." "Well then Mr. O'neal, what did you think about it?" the room got quiet. It was rare for James to answer a question outside of history class, his classmates were shocked. "It's about two teenagers who fall in love and then kill themselves when their parents disapprove. It's really dumb when you think about it, also i consider it the genesis of this whole emo fad and quite frankly, emo's should be shot. Given the principle of transitive relation, Shakespeare was an emo and should be shot and ignored, lest his influence taint future generations." If the Dragon could breathe fire, she would have done it then as the class erupted in laughter around her. "You will all do a fifteen page essay on Romeo and Juliet! MLA format! Handwritten! I will need your rough draft and final draft!" She snapped. The laughter subsided and she sat back down at her desk to what James could only figure was plotting ruining the hopes and dreams of orphans.

After writing three pages of his rough draft that really worked the emo angle of Romeo and Juliet it was time for lunch. Thank god time for lunch James though he needed to stretch his legs, and luckily it was pizza day, well whatever it was the school passed off as pizza. After getting his plate and sitting down at "his" table, he liked to play that game with all the clicks in school, sit at "their" table and force them to relocate. Today it was the preppy obnoxious girls he wanted to mess with. Making it to "their" table first he sat down, as they filed out of the cafeteria line he was greeted with snarled faces and rude comments, laughing all the while. It wasn't that James was hated, or disliked, it was that he simply didn't conform. He stuck out like a busted heap at an antique car show. To say he marched to his own drum wasn't giving him enough credit, he marched to his own orchestra, and anytime someone questioned it it simply played louder.

As a result of this he didn't have many friends. He saw this as a benefit though, as the few he had were worth having. Frank and John soon found their way to the new table, "No wonder you can't get a decent girl James you keep pissing them off." John remarked as he sat down. "Well your mother seems to enjoy my company pretty well." James countered with a mouth half full of pizza. "Where's Sarah?" Frank said looking around trying to spot the redheaded she-devil. "FUCK YOU! YOU SON OF A BITCH! I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOUR STUPID COCKSUCKING SELF!" The trio erupted in laughter, Sarah's most recent relationship victim just outlived his life expectancy. She stormed over, stole the slice of pizza from Franks hands and took a bite, "What!?!? Got a Fucking problem?" James was laughing so hard he couldn't breathe and John and Frank were taken aback, this wasn't her normal crazy anger fits, something flared in her eyes. It scared them.

Choking down his laughter James asked, "What did this one do? Be nice?" "I don't want to Fucking talk about it!" "Jesus chill girl, you know we've got your back, well at least I do, these other pussies... I'm not so sure." "Fuck them!" she cried and stormed off leaving them alone. "Well chaps, it would seem I'm on damage control now, make sure she doesn't kill to many people" James stood up and began walking to where he knew Sarah had went to vent. "She won't fuck you man." Frank started "Your a good guy, so you've got no shot." John finished. "Eh, I'm also an idiot."